Deception - 11. Dec Chapter 11

Under protest, I showered and changed into fresh clothes, and Tom did the same after me, while Lucas, Marie and Sam unpacked the car, piling all the camping gear in one heap in the dining room. “Now once again, what are you doing here? I thought you would be back at your own homes” I asked of my three friends. “Well yesterday afternoon, after you guys set off for home, we decided that we wanted to do some sight-seeing while in this wonderful state, so we caught yesterday afternoons flight over, and we checked into a hotel in town, we thought that you could give us a tour of the area” Lucas said with a cheeky grin.

“Ok, I guess we can do that, even if we are not fully familiar with the area yet, since we only moved in just over a fortnight ago” I replied as I looked at the big pile of camping gear stacked in the corner, before heading for my mobile phone on the kitchen counter and dialed a number. “Paul, it is Gres here, I have some unannounced visitors, who are demanding that I be their guide in our little city, where can I take them and loose them” I said as soon as Paul answered, and I could hear Paul laughing loudly on the other end, before he hung up.

At first, I had no idea while the phone went dead, until there was a knock on the door, and I realised that Paul was at home next door, and I opened the door to let him in, before introducing him to my friends. “Actually, we met in the hotel last night, so I knew all about this” Paul said with a big grin, and I saw the others also smiling broadly.

“Ok, Paul can we take the boat out to near the point of Lincoln National Park?” I asked my boss, hoping he would allow us the use of the boat for a big of recreation time, “Yes, I see no problem with that, I guess you want me to be your Skipper?” Paul said, “Yes please, if you can spare the time” I answered back in a pleading tone, and Paul just laughed and walked to the door, “Be at the jetty in twenty minutes, and bring supplies” he said as he walked out.

“Ok everyone, grab the Esky, we need to make a quick trip to the supermarket for drinks and snacks” I said as I grabbed the kit bag containing all the abseiling gear, as well as my mobile and keys, before following everyone else out of the unit. Just under twenty minutes later, we arrived at the jetty, with a full Esky of ice, cold drinks and snacks, Sam and Lucas loaded it onto the boat, while I grabbed the kit bag and locked up the car and followed Tom to the jetty.

With Paul at the helm, we headed outwards, but not eastwards toward the national park, but north along the west side of Boston Island, and I looked at Paul with a puzzled look, “Just relax my friend, in just over an hour you will know where our destination is” Paul said, so I sat back and looked at Boston Island as we passed real close to it. Once we had passed the island, Paul changed direction to north east, towards the tip of Point Boston, and when we passed the point, Paul changed directions again to due north.

Ahead I could see another Island, and I realised that this is where we were heading, “Louth Island, that’s where we are heading isn’t it?” I said to Paul, who just smiled and nodded his head, and he adjusted his heading so as to go to the western side of the island, and he slowed down and followed a northerly course, as we went within 50 metres of the island. “Welcome to Louth Island, the owner doesn’t mind day visitors, as long as all rubbish is removed, and no damage is made” Paul said, and he slowly passed a grey sandy beach with high cliffs above it.

About five minutes later we arrived at a much longer beach, with steep slopes, and some rough stairs leading to the top of the island. Once the boat was beached and anchored, Sam and Lucas grabbed an end each of the Esky, Tom grabbed the kit bag, and we made the walk up to the top of the island, about 30 metres above the water, where we saw an old shearing shed and a couple smaller buildings and some yards.

We left the Esky in the shade of the buildings, and began walking around, exploring the island, “Where you see a steel picket with red on top, stay clear of there, as its dangerous. The island has a number of deep limestone holes, no one knows how deep they are” Paul said, and Tom just smiled, looking at me first then to Paul, “No Problems, that’s why we have this with us” Tom said holding the kit back in front of him.

“I have promised to teach Tom to abseil, so we have all the gear for it in the bag, so now would be a great time to find out” I added, seeing Paul with a stunned look on his face, which made Tom giggle, and we kept walking till we came across the first steel picket with red markings. Stopping a good twenty metres away from the post, I opened the back and pulled out three short steel posts, and a small heavy hammer, and I drove the posts into the ground, at one metre spacing.

Tom had pulled the rope out and he passed it to me, and with one end, I began to secure the rope to the three posts, before throwing the coil of rope towards the steel post and it disappeared out of sight. As I put my harness on, I showed Tom how to do the same, before putting on our helmets and gloves, next we attached two carabiners and the figure 8, which I looped the rope through, I showed Tom how to do the same thing, so he was in front of me, closest to the posts.

Once he was online, I showed him how to position his hands to act as a brake as he goes down, and we practiced it a few times, so he was comfortable with it, this was also a test to make sure that the three posts would hold us safely, once we descend. Flicking on the light on my helmet, I told Tom to wait till I gave the all clear for him to follow me down, and I started walking backwards towards the red peg, and just five metres from it, I came across the edge of the hole, and slowly began to descend.

The hole was only about ten metres wide at the top, but as I lowered down, I slowly became wider, till I came to a stop at the bottom, with my feet touching water. I swung around as best as I could, and with the little light from above and the light from the helmet, I could see that it was a large cave about 40 metres in diameter, with a small beach at one end. I lowered myself into the water, and once I was treading water, I unlocked the carabiner, to be free of the rope, and looking upwards I shouted all clear.

I remained treading water, loosely hanging onto the rope, ready to pull hard on the rope, to act as an emergency brake, if something went wrong, and I watched as Tom made his first abseiling descent, which he did very well. “It’s mostly water Tom, so you will need to get wet, just slowly lower yourself into the water, then unhitch the carabiner” I instructed Tom, and he did as I instructed. Once he was free of the rope, we swam to the small beach at the far end of the cave, where he climbed out of the water.

“Well done Tom, I am very proud of you” I said to Tom with a big smile. Starting from where the rope hung down, I began to slowly scan the walls of the cave, till I reached behind where we stood. I noticed a bit of a ledge about 5 metres up, and I wondered where it leads too, and before I could say anything, Tom began to free climb up the rocky cliff face. “Go slowly Tom, pick your spots for grip, and test them for weight strength, before putting all your weight on it” I instructed him, watching him nervously.

Once he reached the ledge, he disappeared out of sight for a few minutes, returning to announce that there is a tunnel at the back of the ledge, so I too began to climb the ledge, I found it hard going, and nearly slipped a couple of times, but finally reached the ledge, which is about twenty metres long and eight metres deep, where Tom was waiting for me. With me leading the way, we entered the tunnel, which was very narrow, barely 1 ½ metres wide, and about 2 ½ metres high.

I paced out the distance from the entry of the tunnel, noticing there was a slight slope downwards the further we went, and after nearly 150 metres, I came to a sudden stop. I had sunlight above me, but what I nearly missed, was a drop downwards of about ten metres, the hole was about ten metres wide, but this time it was the same diameter for most of the distance up and down.

I asked Tom if he would mind staying put, and I would return to the surface from the way we came, and bring the rope over to this second hole, Tom said he was fine and so I made my way back to the main cave.

From the edge of the ledge to the water’s edge of the beach, was a distance of about ten metres, too far to try and run and jump, so I had to very carefully climb back down, which took a lot longer than I had planned. Swimming back to the rope, I attached the carabiner, and tied the rope to it and shouted above to hoist me up.

Once I was back on top, I took off the rope and walked the 150 metres in the direction I thought Tom was. There was no marker peg, but I found the hole, nearly falling into it, “Tom, are you there” I shouted, “Yes Uncle, and you don’t need to shout, I can hear you clearly” came the reply from Tom.

Paul, Sam, Marie and Lucas appeared with all the gear, and having seen me do it before, Paul hammered in the pegs, and I attached on the ropes and tested them for weight, before I began my descent once again. When I saw Tom in front of me, I smiled and held out my hand for him to pull me over to the edge of tunnel, which he managed to do fairly easily.

Showing Tom how to connect this harness to the rope from this angle, I linked with the rope again, and continued downwards, till I reached solid ground. Once unhitched, I called up to Tom to come down, and he too was soon at the bottom of the hole, where there is one small tunnel, the similar in width and height as the other one, but only about 60 metres long this time.

We entered a large cavern, with the ground flat all over, the cavern also had a hole leading up to the surface also providing some natural light, the cavern is about 30 metres in diameter, and 6 metres in height. I also noticed two other tunnels, fairly spaced evenly, and a faint light coming from each one. After about fifteen minutes of exploring, we discovered that the other two tunnels were about the same length, but only had a hole upwards to the surface, with no other tunnels leading off it.

“I think we should keep this to ourselves for now Tom, just say we found a couple small caves and some tiny tunnels that came to dead ends” I suggested and Tom nodded his head in agreement as we made our way back to the rope, this time Tom went up first. Back at the buildings, we had some lunch and had a swim down at the beach, before we made the long journey back to the LMSC.

About two hours after getting back, we gathered again at the hotel, showered and dressed, for a dinner at the restaurant, as it is the last night for Marie, Sam & Lucas, who planned to fly back to Adelaide in the morning.

Once our visitors had left the following day, Tom and I drove around the city a bit more to get familiar with the surroundings. We checked out a café for lunch and in the afternoon, we went for a swim in the bay, as it was becoming a very warm day.

On Monday, I dropped off Tom at school, and I began a new week at work, working from 9 to 3 on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays, 9 to 5 on Tuesdays & Thursdays, where Tom would be dropped off at my work after school has ended, and he would read a book, or just watch me work. We settled into a new routine fairly easily, with only the occasional periods, when Tom would get upset when he thought of his late mother.

After nearly three weeks back from Adelaide, Tom walked into my office at work on Thursday afternoon holding a newspaper, which he handed to me. “Two islands near Port Lincoln, sold to Westland Investments” was the headlines on the front page of the statewide newspaper.

“Mr. Lucas Patterson, a Perth based lawyer, representing Westland Investments, said that the owners have visited the region, and on learning of the disastrous plans for nearby Boston Island, they purchased the 135-hectare Louth Island and the 51-hectare Grantham Island, to stop any development from happening on the two islands”.

“Uncle, is this company Westland Investments yours? Tom asked me, and I smiled, “You are a clever young man Tom, yes, it is, I asked Lucas to look into buying the islands, for the exact reason stated in the paper, however, since our little expedition the other week, I may adjust that slightly.

I want to remove the old buildings that are on Louth, and maybe develop some underground buildings, in that great cavern that we found” I stated, “That sounds great uncle, a sort of hideaway” Tom remarked, “Yes and let’s keep it a secret for now Ok” I added.